As it happened, November came and Komarov, for reasons outside his own ability doesn't have an NHL job. It's not so much taking his ball and going home, as Komarov was careful to craft a contract that would allow him to return to North America and play in the NHL if the labour situation was to resolve itself.

The Toronto Marlies announced Tuesday forward Leo Komarov has been loaned to Dynamo Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). As per club policy, terms of the agreement will not be released.

Komarov, a former sixth round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs, joined the Marlies at the start of the 2012-13 regular season and has registered nine points (6 goals, 3 assists) along with 22 penalty minutes in 14 games.

This clears up a regular forward spot on the Marlies. My own selfish agenda would dictate Dallas Eakins could give more minutes to former Portland Winterhawk Brad Ross, who I thought had some NHL potential after watching him play on several occasions last season. Komarov had been playing on a line with Nazem Kadri and Keith Aucoin, but Eakins has jumbled the lines this season. The Marlies will keep on keeping on, but they'll do so without one of their top goal scorers. I do expect Komarov to be in the mix when the NHL comes back and the Maple Leafs are in training camp, and we'll see if Komarov has the patience to withstand more AHL games if it means he's a little closer to the National Hockey League.

Cam Charron is a BC hockey fan that writes about hockey on many different websites including this one.

I was looking forward to seeing him play more with the Marlies. It's clear he is an integral part of the team, on the forecheck, backcheck, drawing penalties, a scoring touch, and just overall compete level shift after shift. Would love to see him with the leafs whenever this season starts.